'The Haunted Wood'

Published: January 24, 1999

To the Editor:

In his review of ''The Haunted Wood,'' Joseph E. Persico accepts the validity of Russian documents allegedly verifying the guilt of Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs and others by asking ''to what end'' Russian operatives might have ''concocted'' those files. A likely reason is that the N.K.V.D. (the forerunner of the K.G.B.), like other bureaucracies around the world, greatly exaggerated its successes to please its bosses -- in its case, the ever-dangerous Beria and Stalin. American hysteria over an alleged Soviet ''atomic espionage ring'' provided the N.K.V.D. with outstanding opportunities: If paranoid Americans believed that such supremely ordinary Americans as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, David Greenglass, Harry Gold and others were dedicated Soviet intelligence operatives, why not claim them as ''one of us''? And if Truman and Eisenhower believed these fables, why not Stalin and Khrushchev?